Chapter 20 #2
When I straighten, I squeeze his hand, then explore the library until I find Maren at her own table near the stacks. She’s wearing her hair up and wrapped in a kerchief, but a few copper strands have escaped, and I fight the urge to step closer and tuck them away.
I realize with a start that I’ve been spinning the ring on my finger, which is probably the reason it feels warm.
A nervous habit, though I’m not sure why I’m nervous.
Except for the usual—being betrothed to a king, hanging out in a realm of nightmares, a boyfriend whose job was to kill me, but instead he saved me.
My fiancé’s second-in-command, who wants to kill me.
And mystical barriers about to fall and unleash hell on earth.
The usual suspects.
I shove my hand in my pocket and ignore the damn ring as Maren looks up, then quickly dips her head again. “Your highness,” she murmurs.
“Not married yet,” I tell her. “Please, call me Cora.”
“How can I help you, Ms. Lyte?”
“Right.” I clear my throat and pull Tia’s folded list out of my pocket.
“I have two things, actually. The first is a list—my friend Tia is working on a research project and needs me to bring back as much as I can find on a handful of topics. Could you have someone pull whatever the library has? I’ll come back through for them on my way out. ”
She takes the list, scans it, and gives a small nod. “Of course. I’ll see what we can gather.”
“The second one is more specific. Finn said you might know if it’s here.” I give her the details on the threshold book, then cross my fingers. “Any chance it’s in the collection?”
“I’m afraid not, my lady.” Her voice is low, almost a whisper. Then she stands and gathers her things. “If you’ll excuse me. There are things that must be cataloged in the basement. I’ll have your list pulled before you leave.”
Then she’s gone—out the far door, quick and quiet.
So much for my fantasy that she’d walk right up to a shelf, pull the threshold book, and hand it to me.
A moment later, Adric sidles up to me, his fingers twining with mine. “I have read a great deal in a very long life, and I have never heard of your threshold book.”
“Eavesdropping, much?”
He chuckles. “Just popping in to see how your quest is going.”
I grimace. “From what you just said, not well.”
He shakes his head. “The book may well be here. Much of this collection is even older than I, and there are corners of it that have not yet been cataloged.” He spreads a hand at the stacks. “If it exists anywhere in the five realms, it could as easily be here as not.”
“You really think so?”
“It’s possible.”
I frown, remembering the way I’d found Chase’s cure. If it is here, maybe I can find it on my own.
I let go of Adric’s hand and walk into the stacks.
I don’t read titles. I don’t scan spines.
I just walk the seemingly endless aisles, my mind reaching for the thing I need as I move deeper and deeper among the books, past sections in languages I don’t recognize and then back into books with familiar words but incomprehensible topics, as if the books themselves are gibberish.
After what seems like hours, I’m exhausted and no closer to finding the book.
Try it. Just try it.
The little voice in my head is firm. Determined.
I sigh. Why not? The worst that can happen is nothing.
So even though I feel a little silly doing it, I reach out, imagining the book in my hand.
And as I do, a small leather volume with no title on the spine begins to wiggle its way out from between two others. Except I remember those two books. Both blood red and side by side.
The little book wasn’t there before.
I’m doing it again.
Awe mixed with relief washes over me, so strong it almost knocks me over, but I manage to keep my balance as I pull the little volume from the shelf.
The moment I do, a sense of rightness washes over me, so strong I don’t even need to open it.
I do, anyway, and even though I don’t know Latin, I know enough to recognize that Liber Tenebris Liminis has something to do with thresholds.
And that’s good enough for me.
“You found it.”
I jump a little, then turn to face Adric, his expression a little awed.
“Weird, isn’t it? I don’t know how it works, but that’s how I found Chase’s cure, too.”
He says nothing, but when he looks at me, I see the hint of a smile. “Then let us hope this magic still speaks truth.”
I nod vaguely, then look up to meet his eyes. “Maren didn’t have a clue. Doesn’t she catalog the books? She should have known.”
He chuckles. “Would that my staff were that well-informed.”
“What do you mean?”
“Beloved, there are more books in this library than exist in your entire Realm. I don’t think her memory deserves to be faulted. More, as you say in the Real, you should cut her some slack. I imagine you make her quite nervous. You are her queen, after all.”
“Not yet.”
“Close enough to make a librarian forget herself in your presence.”
I shrug, silently conceding the point.
“I have to get back,” I say, tucking the book into the inner pocket of the cloak the realm put on me when I crossed. “Tia’s going to lose her entire mind. I just need to swing through and pick up the rest of the books Maren’s pulling for me.”
Adric catches my hand. “You only just arrived.”
“I know. I’m sorry. But this matters, and the longer I’m here, the longer the people in the Real are out there with no idea what’s coming.”
I go up on my toes and kiss him—quick, then not quick, because quick and Adric really don’t go together. When I finally pull back, we’re both breathing hard.
“Stay,” he says against my mouth.
“I want to, I admit. But I can’t.” I hold his hands tight. “But I’ll come back. I want more, too.” He nods, then he steps back and lets me go.